Mass Media Perception of the European Union in Kazakhstan

This paper explores the mass media perception of the European Union (EU) in Kazakhstan through the content analysis of major mass media outlets. This paper examines news reports and periodical articles from four major national Kazakh newspapers: "Yegemen Kazakhstan", "Kazakhstanskaya Pravda", "Zhas Alash" and "Vremya" at three measurement points. The first measurement point covers early 1990s when Kazakhstan became an independent state and started to build its foreign relations. The second measurement point covers years before and after introduction of the EU Strategy for Central Asia, namely years between 2006 and 2008. The third measurement point covers last three years (2011-2013) associated with implementation with the EU Strategy and assessing its results. The research suggests that the mass media generally positively perceives the EU, as most publications emphasize the positive role played by the EU in the region and Kazakhstan. Additionally, the initiation of the EU strategy for Central Asia led to wider coverage and therefore wider public recognition of the EU in Kazakhstan. However, discourse analysis of publications authored by the EU and Kazakhstanian elites indicates substantial variation in depiction of the European Union and its engagement in Central Asia and Kazakhstan in particular.